Sorry about having been seriously AWOL (absent without leave)…. A week ago I got back from a week just north of San Francisco for my mom’s 89th birthday and have been scrambling ever since (making gifts, wrapping gifts, packaging and mailing gifts…). My dear and wonderful sister-in-law came up from LA (Joyce, my late half-brother’s widow) to Mom’s in the Bay Area, too. It was a wonderful reunion… wish we weren’t so far apart! We need to do that more! I’ll blog about that trip, dyeing fabric (which is the closes I’ve come to quilting in too long a while), and the Frayed Edges December meeting (which DOES involve a quilt…Kathy’s work of wonder!) in the coming week or two…. I expect everyone else is as swamped as I am!

We had a significant Nor’easter on Sunday which added another 8 inches of snow to the nearly 10 on the ground—before the temperature started rising twenty degrees at about 6 pm (from low 20s to 40 at 11 pm!) and it turned to rain, which sank to the bottom of the snow and made the Mid-Coast of Maine a skating rink…sidewalks are hazardous. But the landscape is glorious.

The Frayed Edges are intrepid (and busy) souls, so three of us gathered at Kate’s house in Bowdoinham despite the storm and resulting yuck on the roads–we just drove veeerrrrryyyyy sllllowwwwwlllyyyyyy. Deborah, living near Dallas, was with us in spirit and our hearts, as was Hannah who was home with a sick daughter (bummers for both!). On the way, I snapped these pics of the ice on the trees about a mile from Kate’s… what awesome beauty!

I know I’ve said it before, but I LOVE winter, and I love winter in Maine. Imagine getting to see this sort of beauty and inspiration within (literally) a snowball’s throw from the garage doors and while walking the dog-beasties?!!! I’m on to do a small challenge quilt by the end of February on “Winter,” and I think after my walk at 5 yesterday (pitch dark!) I’ll do moon on snow with trees…… Here’s the neighborhood:

In the backyard:

The woodpiles:

Taking a gamboling puppy out for walkies (bunnies do the bunny hop, ‘Widgeon does the pug hop!)—and the deeper the snow, the more his short little doggie body loves it!

St. Francis on watch…. this was in my late father-in-law’s garden in southern California, moved with him to Washington state, moved to our house on San Juan Island when he died (St. Francis’ feast day is the same date as my birthday… I knew I liked him!), and then came to Maine:

The snowy branches, undisturbed by winds, look like the tracery on medeival cathedral windows:

And the trees in front of the Squibb’s house and the dangly branch next door:

This past Sunday night, Monday and Monday night we had our first glorious snowfall here in Maine! On Friday, Joshua said his science teacher had written on the chalkboard under Monday “Snow Day.” So what do you do on a freebie day at home? Build a big fire in the woodstove and, if you are Eli, read a book with Zeus the cat and ‘Widgeon the pug:

If you are Joshua, you eat while IM’ing your friends:

If you are Yeti the dog-beast, you do the same thing you always do:

If you are ‘Widgeon the adorable, and this is your first real snow experience, you do the pug-hop with glee and abandon at every opportunity:

I just love our little guild chapter here in the Camden region! As I’ve probably mentioned many times before, the Coastal Quilters are a chapter of the statewide Pine Tree Quilt Guild. This year we decided to have a test-run holiday bazaar during our regularly-scheduled Second-Saturday meeting. WOW!

It was packed for the first 90 minutes, and I actually make some money, sold a totebag, a small piece (At Anchor, mounted and framed), a pattern and some glass ornaments (of which I would like to sell more, rather than have them in my basement!). Next year we are thinking we should start at 9:30 or even 9, rather than 10!

As we approached lunchtime, the crowd eased up and we sat and ate and knit:

I am also in serious lust for this woman’s jacket–the plum and greens in the center.. I totally love love LOVE the colors!

My friend Betty and I shared a table, and (lucky me!) I snapped up one of her pieces before we opened. Now I have my very own Betty Johnson!

This photo shows the right side of the room with Betty (in navy blue in the center), Jan P. (big tote, burgundy top), and Polly Schuessler (blue top, on right), who had some glorious rag rugs. If my bathroom walls weren’t so awful to paint (wood siding) I’d have bought the white and lime and yellow rug and re-done the bathroom that weekend! Maybe if I have cash in summer and she still has the rug then……

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We all decided it was worth doing, and worth doing again, perhaps with more advertising!

It is that glorious time of year again, when the air is crisp, the leaves are on fire, the sky is screaming blue (alternating with stormy gray). I don’t know if autumn is my favorite season because I was born in early October (yep, I hit FIFTY this month…. don’t feel a day over early-30s except for my knees!), or just because autumn is so spectacular. After retrieving two quilts from a local quilt show on Monday, I took lots and LOTS of pics on the way home. The one above is one of my favorites…. as usual, I love the close ups. I totally love the sharp contrast of the nearly-black bark and the bright oranges and reds. I’ve been really inspired by some of Dijanne Cevaal‘s recent quilts of treescapes (click on her name, which will take you to her July 2007 archives and scroll down to July 15 and 7), and after the Week 2 dyeing class with Carol Soderlund, think I have several TreeScape quilts in my future!

While on the way down to the quilts, I spotted this tree and, on my return, pulled over for the first of a series of road-side Driver’s Seat Snapshots:

Then there was a whole string of glorious shots (all from the car! I WAS careful and pulled over to the shoulder, etc). Here’s one of turning leaves–I love to see the progression of color change from the treetop and tips of the branches, flushing back towards the trunk.

Then of course there are the startling silhouettes of branches laden with red, the deep shadows of the northern woods behind:

Here is a wide-angle shot, not so pretty, but it gives an idea of what the roadside looks like on Route 90 in Warren and Rockport:

Here is a glorious massing of red:

And a portrait of a young, understory maple:

And another:

Even the gas station had glorious shots. The best priced gas is at the independent station at Tolman Pond on Route 90 in Rockport. Here is a major zoom picture of the trees on the far end of the pond (in the West something this large would be called a small lake!):

As I took the picture of the diesel pump, a guy asked me if I was focusing the camera. I said no, taking a picture. He allowed as how he’d never seen anyone take a picture of a gas pump before, but I think it makes a good photograph. Who knows, we all know I’m slightly deranged (said in a John Cleese voice, please! “Deeee-Ranged!”).